Effect of excess bismuth on synthesis of bismuth ferrite.

BiFeO3 ceramics were prepared by using the sol-gel technique with adding excess amount of bismuth. Different concentrations of excess bismuth were used to study the evolution of crystal structure and physical properties of BiFeO3. The phase purity and crystal structure of all samples have been studied by powder X-ray diffraction. The primary BiFeO3 phase could be indexed to R3C space group and analyzed by Rietveld method to extract different crystallographic parameters. Secondary phases were suppressed with addition of 4% excess bismuth. The leakage current for all the samples for all samples have been studied by ferroelectric hysteresis loop at room temperature in the maximum electric field of ±100 kV/cm. The leakage current for 4% sample is least (1.86 nA) among all samples due to reduction of extra phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]